> Kathy:
>
> I find that my students are growing by leaps and bounds when they are
> made accountable for their own learning. Researching, writing, and
> publishing seems to inspire them to be accountable. Don't you think
> this is because it lends an air of professionalism to what they are
> doing? They aren't simply writing papers to write papers, but they are
> identifying a problem and solving it in a way that contributes to the
> art education community.
>
> Maybe there is a research project in here for those of us who are
> involved with teacher prep programs. We can do that in our spare time.
> ;-)
>
> Pam
>
>
> >>I also teach undergraduates (an art methods and materials course for
> future classroom teachers) I have begun to create writing assignments
> which could be of general interest to the art education community and
> require that the work be posted (at present on a listserv and at an
> art education website.) I found that the students were excited to be
> "publishing" even in a small way. And there is always a need for good,
> new web content. Great idea!
> kathy douglas --- <<
>
What a great discussion. I don't teach college students, but I
interview them for jobs. I find a real lack in the kind of skills you
are addressing. I don't know about the rest of the country, but my
district is very hot on "student directed" learning. I interview too
many that don't seem to have a concept of this approach and way too
many that are very limited in computer skills. Next year I will be
initiating a new digital design class. My whole concept is that the
computer screen is a new format. The whole course will be about
publishing to the web and I'm thinking that my students will write and
publish how they have discovered the computer screen as a format as
worthy as a canvas. I'll be asking them to share their solutions and
their learning.
Surely college students can be asked the same questions ---
identifying the problems to solve -- they will be the ones carrying on
> Those of us in the classroom are very short of time for doing
> research. Graduate and undergraduate students have much richness to
> offer, thanks to the ties of the Internet.
>
We need to give them the opportunity to do that and not mire them in
rehashing the same old stuff. I'm in grad school myself and I hate
the requirements of the "papers." There is so little opportunity
for my thinking - it's all research and rehash and just time and paper
wasted on goobly-gook.